Leeds Rhinos v Catalans Dragons - Richard Agar backs youngsters to come in and do club proud

Of the team which beat Hull KR last Thursday, only substitutes Luke Briscoe and Adam Cuthbertson have been named in Rhinos’ initial 21 for this evening’s behind-closed-doors fixture at Emerald Headingley.

Agar has confirmed six players will make their Rhinos debut and he accepts that will make Catalans “overwhelming favourites”.

But the coach stressed the players in tonight’s 17 deserve an opportunity and he is confident they will do the club proud.

“I think we can be competitive,” Agar said.

“We definitely haven’t given up on it.

“We have had a really vibrant preparation and we’ve a number of young, very enthusiastic kids in there.

“Of course if Catalans go full strength and you go man for man and look at the respective line-ups, we understand they will be overwhelming favourites.

“But we don’t know what team they are putting out yet, we don’t know what the weather conditions are going to be like and there’s a lot of unknown about us, which can be a very dangerous quantity.”

As well as eight who have yet to make a first team appearance, two of today’s squad have played once for Leeds and only five have reached double figures.

But Agar stressed: “We know, moving forward, we are going to have to get some of these players through our pathway.

“It is a golden opportunity, some of them have come close on a number of occasions and as Kevin [Sinfield, Rhinos’ director of rugby] and myself are looking to the future and how we shape our squad, it is a great way to make a first impression.

“We really believe in them. As we are making recruitment decisions we definitely want to pencil some of these names in to think these guys are going to be part of our 17-20-man squad over the next one, two or three seasons.

“We don’t think some of them are too far away anyway.

“We are looking forward to seeing them play.”

Rhinos began Betfred Super League round 14 in fourth place, two points ahead of Catalans and with a win percentage of 70, against the French outfit’s 55.56.

“It is week by week, step by step,” Agar said of the race to qualify for the top-four play-offs.

“There’s different challenges every week and in terms of Catalans being a top-four team, they have certainly got the personnel, but we think we are in the same boat too.

“We are on three losses like a lot of teams in the top four or five region.

“The schedule, I think, is going to really play a part in the run in, what games get put on, when they get put on, who is playing three games a week.

“That is going to have a big bearing on how the competition pans out.”

Full-back Jack Walker is set to feature for the first time since suffering a fractured foot against Warrington Wolves in February and Agar said he will be in contention for Saturday if he gets through unscathed.

“We’d like to get some time into Jack, to see how he goes,” the coach said.

“We have got a number of players coming back - Konrad Hurrell and Brad Dwyer are coming back off a Covid break and Cameron Smith’s back from his broken jaw.

“We have got some selections [to make] going into the weekend.

“We are pretty certain of 15, possibly 16 of our team.

“There’s at least a spot and maybe two up for grabs for the semi-final and hopefully we are only backing up one or two players maximum from this game.”

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